


Son of the Moon, Son of the Sun

by Mother_Of_Hedgehogs



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Age Difference, Alpha Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Dubious Consent, Joe has a harem, M/M, More tags will be added later, Nicky is an innocent omega, Omega Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Size Difference, Tribe King Joe, WARNING: ecxessive use of the word barbarian/barbarians, War Prize Nicky, alternative universe, ecxessive use of the word cub, lots of misunderstandings, this is a fantastic world and nothing of this has any particular religious or cultural inclinance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:01:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28563978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mother_Of_Hedgehogs/pseuds/Mother_Of_Hedgehogs
Summary: Nicolo, an omega isolated from the world and unaware of what is beyond his tribe, is taken to the tribe of the alphas to fulfill the prophecy hanging over king Yusuf.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 41
Kudos: 174
Collections: Omega Nicky Holiday Gift Exchange





	Son of the Moon, Son of the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> This is bad, is really bad. 
> 
> I don't even know what I wrote so this all may be pure shit.  
> I should warn you about a bunch of stuff, but I'm gonna be a bitch and not do it. You're all adults if you're reading an E rating fic, so I hope you know what you're getting into. 
> 
> This, as I said in the notes, is set in a ficctionary universe, which means that if you're looking for any accuracy concerning to the real world, you're not gonna find it. 
> 
> This is my first ever omegaverse and I'm sure is pretty different of what you're used to read, so, read it under you're own responsibility. 
> 
> All mistakes are mine and I take full responsibility of them. 
> 
> For my babies in the Top!Joe Supremacy discord, you deserve all the love and omega Nicky in the world 💕
> 
> Enjoy!

**Part I**

  
  


The first lights of the day were shining among the high mountains on the horizon; the fire covering the little houses illuminated the whole land in red and orange while the grunts of the battle resounded strongly against the mountains and cliffs; the smell of anguish and rage circulated in the air. 

A curved sword with a deadly edge grazed his head as he bent down to dodge it and plunged his own sword into the man's chest, cutting it open from his throat to his stomach in a single movement. He pushed the body to the ground and jumped to avoid the attack of the next man. The latter was strong and very skilled with the axe he carried and with a couple of movements, he ripped the sword out of his hands, punching him in the nose and sending him to the ground. 

His head hit the ground with a strong blow, stunned him for a moment, but the whip of the other man's axe movement made him react just in time to prevent the blade from digging into his chest. He rolled on the ground and jumped to his feet, staggering a bit dazed. The man wielded his weapon against him once more, and this time he barely managed to avoid it, earning a cut in his thigh that further tore his tunic covered with dirt and blood that at some point was white. 

He turned on his heels and ran, dodging a sword that almost cut his head. A scream to his left caught his attention, and he turned his face to see how one of the  _ barbarians  _ attacking them was carrying a child on his shoulder while the little one screamed. The man advanced through the fighting crowd and the burning houses, striking with his sword one of his brothers who was injured on the ground trying to recover from his wounds and killing him on the spot. 

Nicolo saw red at that moment, and the fury ran through his body. He deviated his steps, and while running toward the man who was leaving with the crying child in his arms, he jumped over a couple of bodies, turning in the air to land on the back of the man with his four legs. The child rolled on the ground and took a couple of blows on some stones, but he was fine, Nicolo made sure of that before attacking the man with all the violence he was capable of, tearing the muscles of his neck with his fangs until the man stopped moving, bleeding on the white stones of the ground. 

Then he jumped on the attackers he could see massacring his brothers, tearing off legs and arms, filling with his blood the land he worshipped and which was being destroyed. A gray wolf bigger than him rushed towards him, pushing him with the force of his muzzle against one of the houses. His body crossed the weakened wood and flames licked his fur; with a shriek he jumped backwards, crossing the rubble until he was on the other side, rolling on the ground to soothe the burning of burns that were slowly healing. 

The other wolf took advantage of his distraction to jump on him, biting him on the back a couple of times. Nicolo grunted and howled, trying to return the attacks by pawing in the air but the enemy wolf stuck his fangs tightly into his side, tearing the flesh from which blood began to gush out. He crushed one of his hind legs as he writhed on the ground and howled once more as the bone snapped. The pain clouded his mind, and as he crawled on the ground trying to escape the other wolf, he lost his animal form. He held his side with one hand, squeezing the area on his ribs where he had been bitten. The other wolf stared at him, stalking him as he struggled to get up, leaning against some rocks on the cliff where he had crashed, feeling his leg bone slowly weld back together. The wolf howled and shook, losing his animal form to let him see a big and strong man, with the emblem of the barbarians drawn on his hairy chest. 

Nicolo looked at him without being frightened, and when the now man took a step toward him, he ran at the speed that his injured leg permitted, trying to lose him amidst the fury of the battle. As he ran, feeling the wind hitting his naked and wounded body, he saw the bodies of his brothers on the ground, bleeding, the liquid running like a river through the streets of their little village. 

"Nicolo!" shouted someone and immediately turned to the voice. Aleno, one of his younger brothers, was being dragged along the ground by a barbarian. "Nicolo, help me!" the attacker turned to see him at Aleno's scream, distracting himself enough for Aleno to take the sword of a dead barbarian next to him on the ground, and tear the man's calf with it. The man let him go with a shout of pain, and Aleno got up quickly, running to Nicolo. 

"Nicolo!" he shouted again as he ran towards him too. The words died in his throat when a spear pierced Aleno in the chest.

"NO!" he cried out in desperation. The man who had thrown the spear ran towards him, and Nicolo, with his red eyes, his fangs glistening in his mouth, and the absolute fury surrounding him, pulled the spear from the inert body of Aleno that had fallen at his feet, and threw it with at the barbarian, impaling him with a dry blow between the stones of the road. 

He searched desperately for a sword, taking the nearest one he could find, regardless of which side it belonged to, and ran wielding it against every enemy he met, weeping for his fallen brothers who were also in his path. 

Suddenly he found himself far from his village, in front of a group of barbarians who were approaching them, some in their animal form and others in their human form holding swords, axes, spears, and bows. He stopped, panting, trying to think what to do next. The new group was still far away, so he ran back to the village, thanking the gods that his wounds were already healed. The temple and home of their priests and brother Phan, their leader, was the only one that had not been burned, perhaps because the barbarians had feared the wrath of their Goddess upon them if they destroyed their temple; perhaps because their brothers, who lay on the ground around the building, had given their lives to defend it. 

He jumped over the bodies, sneaking out of sight of the barbarians who were slaughtering his family a few feet away in the middle of the village. The wood of the entrance door to the temple was covered with blood, the blood of his brothers who had protected the place with their last breath. He tripped over his own feet as he walked into the building, being almost stabbed by a long knife. 

"Brother Nicolo?" asked the trembling voice of the man behind the knife that punctured his throat. 

"Brother Phan!" he cried out with relief as he saw the man alive and unharmed. 

He looked around and his heart leaped in his chest when he saw a crowd of cubs, at least thirty of his brothers, squeezed into a corner of the temple. Their gentle, childlike scents, clouded by pain and discomfort, polluted the air in a suffocating way. 

"Nicolo, I thought they had killed you."

"I will not let them finish me off so easily," he grunted; Phan lowered his knife and held him from his shoulders, leading him to where his little brothers had gathered. 

One of the children handed him a bowl of water which he drank eagerly and then accepted the tunic that Phan offered him and quickly put it on tying it around his waist. 

"You must go, I will take you out of here," he said to Phan standing up; the sword he had stolen still clenched in his fist. 

"We are surrounded, Nicolo, it will not be easy."

"I will get you out of here," he repeated firmly, and Phan nodded, trusting the fury he could see in Nicolo's red eyes.  _ He would save them.  _

They moved swiftly, tying on their backs the provisions they had managed to collect and positioning themselves in an orderly line behind brother Phan. They left the building while Nicolo watched, with his sword raised ready to bury it in any barbarian at the slightest opportunity. 

The roar of the battle a few meters away was still going strong, silencing the noise they made as they slipped through the rubble of the houses that remained towards the slopes of the mountain where they would be safe. 

Nicolo looked behind him, holding back his tears as he saw his brothers being annihilated and his village ransacked, the anger that filled his chest grew along with his anguish, and the hatred he felt for the barbarians also grew with every cry of agony his brothers uttered, with every breath he took from the stale smelling air; the essences of his brothers mingling with those of the barbarians. 

The hoarse voice of a barbarian echoed in the mountains, shouting something in his own language. Nicolo looked at the village they were leaving behind and saw the man who attacked him watching them from the top of the hill. A group of four men appeared running towards them, and Nicolo could see the terror in brother Phan's eyes when he stopped for a moment on his walk to look at their attackers. 

"Run. Run and don't stop! Go to the mountain, hide in the cave, I will cover you," he commanded, and brother Phan seemed to react finally, shouting a command to the group. They immediately began to change, running at full speed up the slopes of the mountain. 

Nicolo squeezed his sword at the sight of the approaching men, and with a quick movement, he struck the chest of the one who reached him first, giving him no time to react. He turned on his heels and jumped to the next one, hitting his sword against the edge of the one that the attacker had in his hand. The barbarian's sword grazed one of his arms and gave him a huge cut that caused him to scream in pain but did not let it stop him, and after dodging two more blows, he buried the tip of the sword in the man's skull. The next barbarian rushed toward him before he could draw the sword from the body of the dead man and hardly managed to dodge the punches thrown by the strong man. The force of the whip that the man carried in his hand lacerated his thighs and sent him to the ground while it curled up in the white flesh and pulled him. 

Nicolo shrieked in pain as the spikes threaded into the leather of the whip buried in his leg, and when the man brought him closer, he kicked him in the jaw with force. The barbarian staggered back in a daze, releasing the grip of the whip that fell to the ground within Nicolo's reach. The last barbarian flew his spear through the air in his direction, and barely managed to prevent it from piercing his skull by crawling on the ground a couple of centimeters, barely enough to avoid the blow. The barbarian snarled furiously, and the other, whom he had kicked, seemed to come out of his daze and hunched over himself, uttering a wild grunt as he began to change. 

He groped for the whip and plucked the spikes from his skin, just in time to strike the last remaining barbarian in human form in the face. The man fell to the ground screaming in pain and grabbing his face with his two hands. The wolf looked in his direction and growled at him before passing him by and starting to run to where his brothers had gone, and Nicolo did not lose another second in crawling as he could and running away, jumping over a stone to land on his four legs and run as fast as his healing limbs would allow. 

He may not have been the biggest or strongest wolf, but his small, slender body compared to those of his attackers allowed him greater speed, so in a couple of seconds he caught up with the wolf, leaping over it and dragging it down the sharp rocks that surrounded the mountain slopes. 

Both wolves rolled around hitting each other on the rocks, growling as they tried to hold on to each other with claws and teeth. The barbarian wolf fell heavily on the ground at the end of the mountain, and Nicolo, bruised and barely conscious of himself, jumped at him and bit him on the neck with force, tearing his flesh until his head was hardly supported by thin tendons. Blood spurted from his snout when he managed to crawl up the hill back to the village. 

The fires had been extinguished, and the cries of his brothers were no longer heard. Nicolo looked around in terror as he ran through the destroyed village where he could hear the cries of the barbarians celebrating. He skidded on the battered ground when he found a group of his brothers being tied up and dragged by the barbarians to where the new group that had arrived was. A guttural growl came from the depths of his chest as he leaped into the air at one of the barbarians who had beaten one of his brothers, a cub, when he bit the hand with which he tried to gag him. 

Nonetheless, he did not succeed. A sharp pain ran down his side and sent him to the ground as it grew. He howled piteously as he felt his whole body burn. He twisted his neck a little, and between his clouded eyes, he saw an arrow sticking out of his side. He felt that he was losing his strength, that the wolf was leaving him, leaving the naked and injured man writhing on the ground with a poisoned arrow stuck between his ribs. 

A pair of feet appeared before his eyes, and Nicolo looked up trying to identify the person between his tearful eyes. 

"You will be a beautiful offering to the king, omega," he heard a hoarse voice whispering to him in a poor imitation of his language. 

Strong arms raising him in the air was the last thing he felt before he was pulled into unconsciousness.

  
  
  


🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

  
  
  


Nicolo had been born, like all his brothers, of the flesh of the Goddess Mother of All:  _ the Goddess of the Moon. _ On a night of the full moon, the cocoon that had emerged from the depths of the highest mountain had opened, releasing the tiny cub that was hiding inside, before returning to the depths of the earth. The priests of his Goddess Mother, his brothers, had picked him up and after carrying out the blessing ritual, they had taken him with them to one of their villages that formed their tribe: the northern tribe, where the Goddess of the Moon ruled and where he would be educated to honor her. 

They had taught him the scriptures, art, and handling of weapons; how to worship their Goddess Mother, care of the earth and animals, observation of the stars, and all that their Mother rules. He had grown up like all his brothers to become a beautiful young man, with a slim and little body, huge green eyes, and a fierceness hidden inside him that had caused him many troubles and had made him deserve many punishments. 

Nicolo had been a curious child, always questioning brother Phan about what was beyond his valley, about the other villages that were part of their tribe. The brother always responded with a calm smile and a caress in his dark blond hair:

"The love and worship of our mother are all you need to know, Nicolo." And he would nod and stop asking, accepting that the brother was right because he would probably never know anyone beyond his little community. 

_ Probably _ was the key. 

Nicolo had had his first transformation a week earlier when a young man showed up. He looked like them, thin, with long hair and green eyes, yet his clothes were different. The long tunic that covered him from his shoulders to his feet was grey, a thick leather belt fitted it at the waist and a thick cloak of dark green cloth protected him from the cold of the mountains. He looked bad, tired, and hurt. 

His brothers received him with expressions of panic on their faces and took him inside their temple. Nicolo approached one of the walls of the huge house and glued his ear to the wood, listening attentively to what they were talking about inside. 

That was the first time Nicolo heard about the barbarians, as his older brothers had called the men who had attacked his visitor's village. 

The barbarians came from the south, beyond their valley and the mountains that surrounded them, crossing seas and rivers until they reached the place where the God Father of All:  _ the God of the Sun _ , ruled. They had been born from their God Father, from the roots of the tree that the God had planted in the middle of the desert, and they were so different from them that it was terrifying. These barbarians did not live in peace as they did; they fought against others of their own kind, destroying communities, or kingdoms, as they called them, in order to take over more territory and wealth than was their due. 

But the barbarians had done something terrible, worse than killing each other: they had contaminated the Goddess Mother children, taking advantage of them in their most vulnerable moments, when the full moon fever affected them and blocked all their capacities to defend themselves. Their actions had had consequences, and now there was a whole new race that had been born of the children of the Goddess Mother and the God Father. 

They were strange creatures that Nicolo hoped never to meet.

The barbarians were ruled by a king, a powerful man born of the tree of the God Father and not of the profane union. What the brother told them left Nicolo having nightmares for days, terrified that the king, a huge man who could transform himself into an even bigger black wolf, would one day decide to send his troops to his little village to massacre them. 

The brother had said the king was looking for someone, a son of the Goddess Mother that could mate with him and have his offspring since the immense power of the barbarian could not be easily contained, and all those with whom he had mated some time, had had a terrible destiny. The king had sent his troops to massacre the villages of children of the Goddess Mother, looking for the one that could fulfill his wishes. 

His older brothers gave the newcomer shelter for a while until he was healthy enough to travel into the mountains where the few who had escaped from his village had hidden. The brother explained to everyone in the village what was happening with the barbarians, choosing his words wisely to avoid frightening the little ones, but he had made one thing clear: they had to be prepared because the barbarians would come to them at any moment. 

The elder brothers had decided then that they should train harder, practicing for long hours with their weapons and spending weeks in their animal form to become stronger. They had made of themselves killing machines, and Nicolo, the sweet Nicolo, with only twenty winters on him, had become their best warrior. 

They had turned their village into a fortification that, until the time of the barbarian's arrival, they had believed impenetrable, but the violence of the attacks had decimated their first line of defense. Nicolo had been beyond rage when he saw their houses begin to burn, and the bodies of his brothers fall one by one. The blood of children stained the ground, and soon the blood of barbarians stained his sword as he moved among them, pulling off heads left and right. 

He would fight to the last breath if necessary but would never let them dominate him. 

  
  
  
  


🌕🌕🌕🌕

  
  
  


He was brought back to life when cold water entered his lungs and choked him. 

He shook himself trying to get away, to come to the surface, but an unknown force kept him underwater. He opened his mouth in a muffled scream, not knowing if he was looking for air or being heard to be pulled out. Suddenly the force disappeared, and a second later someone pulled his hair violently, throwing his body on the hard, rocky surface of the ground that hurt his naked skin. 

He coughed hard, drawing water from his lungs. He breathed in as much air as he could, almost weeping at the burning in his lungs and the pain in his extremities that he had not noticed until now that they were tied. A murmur of laughter rose around him as he was seen struggling for his life, writhing on the ground. 

Soon the recent wounds were healed, and he felt stable enough to look up and see his surroundings through the wet hairs on his face. His eyes were immediately drawn to the laughing men, sitting around a fire as they watched him intently. The barbarian who attacked him in the village was standing in front of him, holding a dark cloth in his hands. 

Nicolo stared at him threateningly, until the barbarian turned his eyes and moved his head to another of the men, and the latter approached him with a dagger in his hands. Nicolo twisted away from him as he held one of his arms that were tied behind his back, grunting with clenched teeth at the barbarian's bold touch. 

"Stay still, you stupid omega," shouted the barbarian behind him, and Nicolo snarled at him, shaking himself even more violently. 

_ Omega? What does that mean? _

The man released his arms and pushed him, almost throwing him to the ground. Nicolo looked up, showing him his fangs like a wild animal, but the barbarian just laughed at him and went back to sit around the fire. The other barbarian who was still in front of him moved, and Nicolo put his attention on him at once, backing up and showing his fangs to him as well. 

"Put this on." He said, throwing the cloth in his hands. Nicolo touched it dubiously, frowning at how scratchy it was and the strong  _ barbarian _ smell it gave off. 

Until that moment he had forgotten that he was naked, and although he hated anything that came from the barbarians, he had to put on the horrible tunic to cover himself a little from the cold. As he passed the cloth over his head, he became aware of what was happening around him. 

It was getting dark, the last lights of the day were barely noticeable and they were in the forest, in a small glade surrounded by huge trees and crossed by a river, the same one where they had tried to drown him to wake him up. The icy wind that was blowing hard, stirring up the fire of the barbarians and threatening to extinguish it, indicated to him that they were still in the north. The barbarians were gathered on his right, ten of them, and on his left, embracing each other, was a group of five of his brothers, two teenagers and three little kids, who were shivering with cold and were casting frightened glances at the barbarians. 

Nicolo moved toward them immediately, caring little for the warnings the barbarians threw in his direction and opened his arms to shelter as many of the children as he could among them. They fell upon him, trembling and sobbing, speaking in rapid whispers that he could not understand, yet he knew perfectly well what they wanted to tell him.

"Shsh, it's okay, I'll take care of you. I won't let anything bad happen to you," he whispered softly, hiding his voice from the barbarians. 

The little ones huddled closer to him, sniffing his calming scent, and Nicolo hugged them for long hours, not caring that the stones were buried in his legs bent under his body at a strange angle, or that his arms tingled in pain from being stretched out so long. 

The night came quickly, cold, threatening to freeze them to the bone. The little ones came as close to him as they could, huddling together to seek some warmth. He crawled until his back hit a mound of moss and grass and settled down as best he could to turn his back on the barbarians and continue to hold his cubs close to his chest. 

The wind was blowing hard and every few seconds one of the little ones was shaking. It would be easy to escape from the cold if they took their animal form, but he doubted that the group of barbarians would let them do that, fearing that they would escape or attack them. He had no choice but to offer the little ones his embrace, and pray to the Goddess of the Moon that they would fall asleep soon and the pain from the cold would subside a bit. 

He closed his eyes and squeezed them tightly, whispering a low tune to help lull the cubs to sleep, trying to ignore the faint murmurs that told him they were scared, cold, hungry, and wanted to go home with their other brothers.

There was no longer a home for them, Nicolo feared, and the fate that awaited them at the hands of the barbarians was uncertain. The only thing he could be sure of was that the suffering would not stop here for them.

  
  
  


🌕🌕🌕🌕

  
  
  


They walked for long days and nights, moving further and further from north to the warm and sunny lands of the south, the home of the barbarians. 

They had tied them all in a row, joining their hands with thick ropes that constantly hurt their wrists. They had provided them all with horrible, dark clothing that had protected them a little from the cold as they crossed the mountains, and now protected them from the scorching sun as they descended to the desert plains. They had also been given sandals to avoid hurting their feet, and fortunately, after the first night, they had been given food, water, and blankets to cover themselves while they slept. 

He had also noticed that despite occasional shouts, they had not been aggressive with them, yet Nicolo did not trust them as their intentions were not clear and he did not want to think about what the brother had told them about the barbarians many winters before, as the terror grew in his heart at the thought that his little brothers might be sacrificed to the merciless king. 

He had counted seven nights when the barren lands of the barbarians appeared before them, just in time to prevent Nicolo's patience from running out. High reddish stone cliffs and golden sand dunes were all Nicolo could see as they were led through narrow paths in the middle of the desert. Green was almost non-existent, and although they had been hiding for a long time, the sun still exerted the force of its heat on their bodies. 

Nicolo had stayed as close to his brothers as the ties allowed, always watching over them as he walked to the end of the line, with the little ones in the center and the teenagers leading the way. Every time one of his captors tried to approach them, Nicolo would grunt at them in warning; no one would touch his cubs if it depended on him. Those kids were all Nicolo had now, just as he was all they had, so he would never walk away from them or allow anybody to cause them any harm; they would have to walk over his dead body to get to them.

Unlike what Nicolo had expected, all along their way they did not come across any more sons of the God Father, nor any more of their brothers. He was confused and partly afraid that the barbarian soldiers he had seen arriving before he lost consciousness had marched towards the mountains of their Goddess, where the survivors of the previous attacks had gone to hide. 

When the crescent moon was high in the sky, Nicolo looked up at it, his eyes shining with longing, raising a prayer for his brothers to be safe from the barbarians. 

_ "Let them hurt me, but not them, _ " he pleaded in his thoughts. 

A long river appeared before them suddenly, moving silently through the dunes like a snake. The water looked dark and the moon and stars reflected on it as they stumbled down the hills to what Nicolo remembered his brothers had said was a  _ ship. _ It was a huge construction made of wood with red and white fabrics hanging from long poles and moving with the gentle wind that blew. In his tribe they had no ships, they didn't need them.

His brothers gasped in surprise and a little afraid, moving to reduce the space that separated them and to approach Nicolo. He was scared too, however, he could not show it. He had to be strong for his little ones. 

His older brothers had once shown him, when he had completed his training, drawings made by the brother who had warned them about everything, about some things the barbarians had created. Although they were all born from the same mother, the members of the other villages lived closer together, knew each other better, and communicated constantly. They had created groups of exploration when they heard of the first attack of the barbarians many winters ago when the ancestors of the present barbarian king had started their invasion of the territories of the children of the Goddess Mother. These exploration groups had marched through their fields until they reached the lands of the barbarians where they had observed them from afar, learning as much as they could about them. 

The information had been transmitted from generation to generation among the brothers, and it was thus that brother Aran knew so much about the barbarians and had given them part of this knowledge, drawing for them what he remembered. Ships, houses, weapons, clothing, were the little that Nicolo could remember about them, and yet, to see some of these things outside of the improvised drawings materializing before his eyes, was terrifying. 

They had been made to board the ship and hide in a small room inside. 

"Brother Nicolo." One of the cubs called, the smallest of them.

"Yes, Damien."

"Are they going to kill us like the others?" he asked in a whisper. Nicolo looked up at the little one. Damien was very small, like all of them; his black hair fell on his forehead hiding his green eyes, nonetheless, Nicolo could see the tears that filled them and that the little one was trying to hide. 

Nicolo moved, kneeling down to reach the cub and pull him into his lap. Fortunately, the barbarians had removed the bindings and given them their blankets to keep warm before locking them up, so Nicolo used the blanket that was piled on his lap to wrap the little one in it and hold him against his chest. 

"No one will die, Damien, I promise." He whispered, squeezing him tightly as the boy began to sob, hiding his face in his neck, pressing his nose into his scent gland. Damien was a cub, he had lived only four winters, and despite being a very intelligent little boy who at his young age knew how to use a dagger perfectly, he was still just a cub, terrified by what he had seen. 

He looked at his other brothers and they saw him, asking permission before throwing themselves on him and huddling around him in a small pile, looking for comfort. Nicolo stretched out his arms and tried to embrace as many of them as possible and closed his eyes, whispering a song to them and hoping they would fall asleep. 

  
  
  


A sudden jolt brought him out of his light sleep. He jumped to his feet, frowning as the pain from the bad position in which he had slept came down from his neck to his hips before slowly subsiding. He looked around with sleep still upon him and came upon the frightened look of brother Juno, who seemed to be the one who had knocked him out of his sleep. 

"What's going on?" 

"We stopped, and there are a lot of people outside; they smell strange," the boy pointed out, and Nicolo paid attention. 

The gentle movement of the water that shook the ship had stopped and the silence of the night had been overshadowed by many voices and other sounds coming from outside. 

They had reached the land of the barbarians. 

"Calm down, we are going to be alright," he said, glancing at each of the children, trying to convey some confidence he did not feel. "Pick up your blankets, they'll soon have us out of here."

The children moved quickly, carefully folding the blankets and placing them in a pile in the corner of the small room before sitting around Nicolo to wait. 

They did not keep them long, and soon the door over their heads opened, letting in the sunlight that blinded them for a moment. 

"Out, everybody." The leader of the barbarians ordered them to stick their heads out of the door for a moment before turning away. 

His brothers murmured in terror, yet Nicolo silenced them with a look before getting up to help the little ones out. One by one he brought his brothers to the surface before he went out himself. The air left his lungs when he was outside and witnessed for himself the land of the children of the God of the Sun. 

A huge crowd of people wandered from one side to the other, sliding among stone buildings and small tents with roofs of colorful fabrics. They wore very scarce and brightly colored clothes; they carried baskets in their arms or on their heads, dodging other people and animals that passed among them; and a thousand strange things that his eyes could not grasp. 

"Walk," the man grunted, pushing Nicolo over his shoulder to advance. 

They didn't put the restraints on them this time, and Nicolo took advantage of this to carry the terrified Damien in his arms and let him hold on to his neck and waist while he took the other two kid's hands with he’s. The teenagers stayed close to him, walking in front of him as they got off the ship to the mainland. 

Strangers crowded around them, watching them with curiosity and whispering to themselves in a low voice. The barbarians who were with them pushed the people out of their way as they guided them between the buildings and stores. A  _ marketplace _ , Nicolo remembered, that brother Aran had said. The barbarians grew their food as they did, and displayed it in a place where other members of their tribe came to buy it using money, coins made from minerals. Nicolo understood that it was a slightly different form of exchange as the members of his tribe did, exchanging products between different villages.

There was so much and at the same time so little that differentiated the children of the Goddess Mother of All from the children of the God Father of All, and this only caused more discomfort in him. 

Strange smells were floating in the air, scents that Nicolo could not distinguish. He knew the smells of his brothers, all of them had a similar scent because they came from the same place, however in this new land, the scents were overwhelming. He recognized the barbarians among them, not by how they looked, but by how they smelled. It was a strong scent like the sun that ruled them, and it hurt his sensitive sense of smell. There were other scents among the people, more subtle ones that felt like being at home, yet they were different so Nicolo could not recognize any of his brothers in the crowd. There were also people of whom he could not sense any odor, and he wondered if these unsmelling people were those born from unholy unions.

The road through the market ended abruptly when they turned into a narrow path, made of dark stones that went up a hill, bordered by tall and narrow stone buildings that must have been the houses of the barbarians. They walked along several of these paths, being observed throughout by people who appeared out of nowhere until the paths ended in an enormous square with a path in the center that was guarded on both sides by huge statues of wolves in a vigilant position. 

The people wandered from one side to the other, however, they looked different, cleaner than those they had seen in the market, wearing clothes made of fabrics that looked soft and comfortable, with jewels and stones on them like the ones sometimes used by their older brothers, the priests, in their ceremonies to honor the Goddess of the Moon. These people did not look at them with curiosity in their eyes, but with disgust and disdain, the same feelings Nicolo had for them. 

As they walked through this new place, a huge building appeared before their eyes. A series of very tall, rectangular buildings of shining white stone with columns supporting the roof, which, because of the intricate designs on them, served also as decoration. That must have been the palace of the king of the barbarians. 

A long path of opaque stone steps led them to the palace gates. He looked doubtful at his brothers, stopping at the foot of the stairs, knowing that once in the palace his uncertain destiny would become a reality. He looked around, wondering if they ran, how far they would get before they were caught.

"Keep walking." The barbarian leader ordered him, giving him a strong push, and he had no choice but to obey. 

They climbed each step as slowly as they could, but they could not prolong the time, and soon they were only a couple of steps away from the huge palace gates. 

"Welcome to your new home, omegas." The man whispered to them with mockery as the doors opened.

A pair of huge men waited on either side of the door with spears in their hands, seeing them threatening as they entered the place. They were greeted by an enormous hall with shining floors, columns with engravings and paintings of many colors, statues, and surprisingly, plants in vases of different shapes and sizes. The hall opened into different corridors, one to the right, one to the left, and one to the back that ended in a huge door like everything else in that place. 

It was a very ostentatious home and it did not compare to anything Nicolo had seen before. He couldn't imagine that it would be comfortable to live there.

In the center of the room was a  _ woman, _ Nicolo knew it was because he had never seen a creature like that before, and by her smell, she was one of the barbarians. She looked like them, the children of the Mother Goddess, with her soft dark hair, green eyes, and pale skin. But their posture and the look in her eyes cried out danger, a danger that Nicolo did not want to face. 

The barbarian who was guiding them went forward a couple of steps and bowed to the woman, in a bow that they were only allowed to make before their Goddess Mother during their prayers.  _ Was this woman a Goddess too?  _

They spoke in their language in a series of quick phrases, directing their attention to them on a couple of occasions before continuing with what appeared to be a discussion. The man finally seemed to finish his argument, and after bowing once more to the woman, he gestured to the men accompanying him and walked into the palace, getting lost in the corridor to the right. 

The woman approached them taking short steps, surrounding them to examine them with her predatory gaze. Nicolo held the cub in his arms, and his other brothers clung to him as much as they could.

_ "Take the little ones to take a bath and eat something: the older one will go with me," _ the woman sighed long, squeezing the bridge of her nose for a moment before returning to her imposing pose.  _ "I can't believe Keane did this; the king is going to be furious." _

The woman gave orders to a couple of people who had been waiting behind her the whole time, and these, two men in whom Nicolo recognized the contaminated scent of his brothers, approached them. One of the men extended his hand and touched the shoulder of one of his brothers, and Nicolo immediately started to move, growling at the barbarian for daring to touch his cubs. 

The little ones around him went crazy as more hands tried to pull them away from him, and Nicolo did not hesitate to attack. His hands moved quickly, hitting his attackers where he could. Little Damien had fallen to the ground, and when Nicolo turned towards him, he saw him growl with tears rolling down his cheeks at the guard who had held him up in the air. 

More guards appeared at once, capturing his brothers. But he did not yield, jumping over them to beat them and have them release their brothers. He punched the man holding Damien in the face and he let go of the little kid to attack him again, threatening him with a dagger that he was carrying around his waist. Nicolo skillfully dodged it and kicked the barbarian a couple of times until he had him on the ground unconscious. 

A strong hand closed around his neck suddenly, and pushed him to the ground with force, whipping his back and head into the cold stone. The woman jumped on him, sitting on his belly and pressing him to the ground with an enormous force that immediately paralyzed him. 

"Calm down!" she shouted at him in his own language with an accent much better than the other barbarians. "They are just going to take them to clean up a bit, eat something, and rest. They'll be fine, nobody's going to hurt your cubs."

Nicolo stared at her with his eyes still red. He turned his head as far as the woman's grip would allow him and looked at his little brothers, who although they were being held by the strong arms of the guards, no one seemed to harm them, yet they continued to shake and beat left and right with battle cries and grunts. 

"Tell them to stop or they will hurt themselves!" 

"Stop! It's alright, it's going to be alright," he whispered to the little ones not sure if their whispers were heard above the din, "please."

Damien caught his glance from where he was scratching the arms of the new barbarian holding him and stopped moving at the plea in his eyes. The other kids seemed to get the message then and also stopped fighting. 

"That's better." The woman sighed and waved to the guards and the other barbarians. 

The guards left the children on the ground and surrounded them as they led them down the left corridor. 

"Come on, you're coming with me." The woman moved away from his body and stopped holding him as she stood up. She fixed the long, elegant green dress she was wearing and then extended her hand to help him stand up. Nicolo looked at the hand dubious for a few seconds, before accepting it when the woman made an annoying sound and shook her hand. 

A couple of guards led them down the corridor to the back of the hall, pushing the door for them and letting them into a beautiful garden, full of tall trees, bushes, and as many flowers together as Nicolo had ever seen. The garden was surrounded by more corridors and when Nicolo looked up, he saw that more corridors were rising into the air through which several people walked, and which were connected to each other by short stairs.

The woman led him to the nearest stairs and they went up to the first corridor in the air. Nicolo looked fearfully out into the garden, fearing that the ground would suddenly open up and he would fall to his death. His people lived close to the ground, in small, unobtrusive houses, and he did not understand why the barbarians would live in these enormous constructions that rose into the air. They walked through the long corridors, going up to the last one, the fourth, giving almost a complete turn to the garden before the woman stopped in front of a wooden door, which although small, was as decorated as everything in that place. She rapped her knuckles on the wood a couple of times and waited until a voice was heard from inside. 

_ "It's okay like this, I'll take it from here." _ She spoke to the guards and they nodded and bowed to her, leaving them alone. The woman looked at him for a second before pushing the door and waiting for him to come in first.

The new room was smaller than the entrance hall and was filled with furniture, carpets, and high shelves where there were rolls, of  _ paper _ , he remembered, carefully arranged. A  _ library _ , Nicolo remembered that too. The barbarians had places like this where they stored the things they wrote or drew on paper rolls, a material they obtained from wood. In their village, they did not use paper, but their writings were written on the thin strips of the skin of the animals they hunted, written using a small stick that they dipped into the colors they extracted by mixing plants with water. They stored these writings on shelves hidden in the walls of the temple, not at all as big and ostentatious as these libraries of the barbarians. 

There were also floating corridors, but these were different from those outside, these were small and made of wood, and they rose like a snake up to the ceiling. There were chairs and cushions scattered on the floor and small tables near the seats. A large missing portion of the wall at the end of the room let in daylight and allowed a view of the whole village and the sea. And beneath this window, sitting behind a long table and surrounded by scrolls, was a solitary man, who looked up when he heard the footsteps approaching him. 

Nicolo's body tightened completely, and his skin bristled when a pair of eyes, golden as fire, were plunged into him. A current of air dragged toward him the scent of the man, strong, powerful, much more than that of the rest of the barbarians, with threatening notes that made him know that this man before him was the king, the monster that his people feared so much. The wolf within him growled restlessly, struggling between terror and anger.

_ "Your Majesty." _

_ "Andromache, what is this?" _

_ "An omega, of course. Keane captured him and a group of cubs in the last village in the north." _

_ "What do you mean captured?" _ The king raised his voice standing up, and Nicolo shuddered, clenching his teeth to avoid letting go of the grunt stuck in his throat at the threat the barbarian represented. 

The man was certainly enormous, his arms and bare chest were adorned with thick jewels. He was as muscular as the rest of the barbarians, and his tanned skin shone in the sunlight and was covered with the hair that he and the rest of his brothers did not possess. His hair was dark as night and curled on the top of his head and around his jaw. Nicolo could feel the anger growing in the man as his smell became more bitter and penetrating. 

He needed to run away, to get out of there as soon as possible, or to attack; he did not know which was the best option.

_ "I thought I had ordered your men to stop this madness." _

_ "Your majes-Yusuf, you know we cannot stop." _

_ "Andromache, killing them will achieve nothing!" _

_ "It is not our intention to kill them, Yusuf. They are wild creatures! You know very well how impossible it can be to talk to them!" _ The woman's voice also went up in pitch, and Nicolo understood that what they were saying was not good.

_ "This one, for example, Keane told me he killed half his regiment, and almost killed us all in the entrance hall when we tried to get him away from the little ones." _

The king's gaze descended upon him at that moment, watching him carefully and Nicolo opened his lips, showing him the tips of his fangs. 

_ "Why did you bring him here? He reeks of terror," _ the barbarian wrinkled his nose while looking at him. 

_ "He's the right age and physique, I think it's time for you to try one more time." _

_ "What? No, no Andromache, I've had enough of this. I'm not taking another damn omega anymore!" _

The king shouted at the woman in a different voice this time, his eyes shining in a dangerous golden hue, and Nicolo shrank in place, feeling the man's wrath on him. The wolf inside him shrank up, and a voice in his head told him he must obey, but to what? 

The man threw the scroll he had been clutching in his hand and turned his back on them, walking to rest his hands on the window. 

_ "You must do it, Yusuf, the prophecy-" _

_ "I don't care about that damn prophecy!" _ He shouted to the window, his fists clenching the stone under his hands until it cracked. _ "How many times have I tried this already? It doesn't work, Andromache, the prophecy you speak of is just another lie from that damn witch." _

_ "Your father believed in her." _

_ "My father is dead and fortunately with him all his laws and meaningless beliefs. _ "

_ "It's alright," _ the woman sighed long and tightly. Her tired green eyes looked at him and her thin hands extended to take him by the shoulders and bring him closer to her.  _ "I only ask you to try one more time, one last time, and I promise I will leave you alone forever. No more omegas for you...And maybe I'll stop opposing the bond you want to form." _

The room remained silent for a long time, until the king turned slowly towards them, directing his gaze at Nicolo once more. His eyes, which seemed to have lost some of their brightness, ran slowly over his body before returning to his face. 

_ "It's alright," _ he nodded, and the woman sighed with relief.  _ "When is the full moon?  _

_ "Tonight." _

_ "Very well. Take him to get something to eat and rest. Have him prepared and brought to my quarters when the moon is in position." _

The man waved and the woman pulled him, dragging his tense body towards the exit of the library. 

Once outside, Nicolo was able to breathe better, feeling the strange force that had kept him acting strangely before the king abandoned him as they moved away from him. Nevertheless, he did not allow himself to relax, as he still did not know his destiny and the woman did not seem interested in talking to him as she led him down the corridor under the one where they were and into another room. 

This place was different, a smaller room than the library, and it was adorned with more carpets, curtains hanging from the ceiling and covering the small windows; cushions, seats, and small tables on all sides. It looked like a meeting room and was full of people, and when he breathed, the combined aromas of his brothers welcomed him. 

Nicolo felt his legs shake and his eyes filled with tears as he walked around the room and counted fifteen of his brothers, all safe and sound, looking clean, well dressed, and well-fed. All of them turned to him at once, stopping their activities to observe him carefully. The woman left him and went to talk to someone on the other side of the room, but Nicolo paid no more attention to her, busy containing his happiness at seeing so many of his brothers there, alive. 

"Cub." A hand touched his shoulder and Nicolo jumped up in fright, looking at the woman who had returned to his side. "They will take you to get cleaned up and then to eat something. There is a space for you to rest, but if you prefer to be with them they will bring you back." The woman pointed to two other women who had appeared in front of him, and Nicolo nodded slowly, unable to utter a word. 

The two women, smaller and different in appearance from the other woman, with no scent he could feel, one with hair red like fire and the other with hair black like night, took his trembling hands and pulled his frozen body gently to follow them. 

"My name is Andromache." The woman said, stopping him. He nodded slowly and when the women did not move forward he looked over his shoulder at the other woman,  _ Andromache _ , who was looking at him expectantly. 

"Nicolo." He whispered shakily, and the woman nodded, leaving the room. 

"Please, sir." Whispered the red-haired woman in his language, and Nicolo let himself be carried away. 

They led him to a small door that was hidden behind one of the curtains that decorated the walls of the room, and they entered a smaller and less decorated room than the other, dominated by a stone sink filled to the brim with water. There was furniture with carefully folded fabrics, jars of all colors and sizes, flowers and dried leaves in wooden bowls, and a multitude of objects that he was not sure what they were or what they were for; and in a secluded corner, partially hidden, there was a seat with a large hole in the center.

This must have been the barbarian's version of a bathroom. In their village, they had small bathrooms outside each house where they used to wash with water from the river that came to them through the piping system that some of their brothers had created in the past, and where they could do their physiological needs in seats similar to the one he saw in this bathroom. Their bathrooms were small, comfortable, and above all practical, as it offered them more privacy than going directly to the river to bathe. Not that there was modesty or shyness towards his brothers, but Nicolo always enjoyed spending a few minutes every morning under the waterfall of fresh-water that fell on him, cleaning his body of all impurities. 

This bathroom was like everything else in the palace, very ostentatious and excessively decorated. Seemingly the barbarians did not want to live a humble life to consecrate themselves with their God as they should. 

One of the women gently pulled the cloth of the dirty tunic he was wearing, urging him to take it off, and even though he felt a little self-conscious before these strangers, he obeyed, slowly detaching the garment to give it to the woman who was waiting for him with her hands extended. 

"Sit down." The other woman asked, pointing to the edge of the pool, which was similar to those used to bathe newborns or where the little ones used to play sometimes. "We're gonna quick bath, okay? My name is Fio, by the way." The red-haired woman smiled at him and he nodded politely but without returning the gesture. 

"Nicolo."

He introduced himself and did what he was asked to do, shaking a little when the cold stone made contact with the bare skin of his butt, but he didn't make a sound. The woman bent down to release the ropes that tied his sandals to his calves and then gently pushed his leg into the water. The warm liquid immediately made him feel relaxed as he moved to sit on the small step inside the pool. The woman who had received his tunic returned to his side with two jars in her hands, pouring a strange dark red liquid and a clear one into the water before lowering her hand into it and moving it in circles. 

The water took on a whitish color and gave off a delicious fruity aroma immediately. Nicolo closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to enjoy the warmth of the bath until he felt something fall on his hair and was startled. 

"Relax, I'm just going to wash your hair," said the other woman who was suddenly crouched behind him, "I am Ella." She muttered and Nicolo slowly nodded trying to calm his racing heart and turned back to his previous position. 

The woman's long, soft fingers began to gently caress his scalp, sliding down, cleaning the long locks of hair that hung down the middle of his back, trying to get out the dirt that had accumulated in them after long days of travel. Other soft hands began to caress his arms, rubbing him gently with a cloth that slightly scraped his skin. 

The women spent long minutes washing him, cleaning his hair and body until he was completely red and numb. When they were happy with how he looked, they made him leave the pool to stand in a corner of the room where they made him sit on a small wooden chair while they poured clean water on him. 

At that point, his body felt numb and longed to be able to take a long nap, wherever, even sitting there he could fall asleep, but the sounds produced by his stomach kept him awake; he was very hungry. 

They dried his body with a large, thick cloth and then put on him white pants of the softest fabric he had ever touched and a long scarlet tunic that brushed the ground every time he moved that had figures in golden threads on his chest. He felt strange in these fine clothes; in his tribe, they rarely covered their legs because it restricted his movements, but when the snow came and the cold became unbearable, they covered themselves entirely with thick skins. When they finished dressing him, they sat him on a different seat and played with his hair until it was soft and silky falling on his chest and back. 

He was falling asleep again when the mixed scents of his brothers reached him when one of the women opened the door to get out of the bathroom. 

"Let's take you to another room to eat and rest, okay?" The woman named Fio whispered to him with a friendly smile. 

Nicolo really wanted to accept because he was very tired and needed to close his eyes and travel to the arms of the Goddess Mother in his dreams, but the memory that his brothers were in the other room filled him with sudden anxiety. No, he couldn't rest, he needed to go with them.

"No, I want to go with my brothers, please," he begged. His brothers smelled of curiosity and confusion, and his instincts screamed at him to run to them.

"It's okay, you can eat with them if you want to." The woman nodded and motioned for him to leave the bathroom first. 

He stood frozen in the doorway for a moment, seeing his brothers gathered close together in the center of the room, but when they looked up at him and smiled at him with infinite warmth he could not help but run to them, throwing himself into the first arms that received him.

His brothers swirled around him to embrace him, enveloping him in their warmth and soft smells, speaking in rapid murmurs that amid his excitement of having them there, he had barely understood. He felt kisses in his hair, on his cheeks, and on his forehead, and cried in the arms that held him tightly until he managed to control his happiness combined with the anguish of uncertainty about his situation.

"It's fine, cub, it's fine. Come on, let's get you some food," one of his brothers told him, finally letting go. "Sit with me," he said, gently pulling his arm to settle him into the padded seat he was in, "my name is Cris. What is yours?"

Nicolo wiped away the tears that wet his face with a wave of his hands. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself and looked up at his brother. "My name is Nicolo”. He responded with a trembling voice. 

Cris smiled gently at him and wrapped one arm around his shoulders, urging him to curl up against his side. Fio and Ella set a small table in front of them and filled it with a variety of foods that Nicolo had never seen but smelled delicious. When the women disappeared, he didn't hesitate to jump on the food, gobbling it up as much as he could in a few seconds. 

He hadn't eaten anything since the night before when they had been locked in the ship, and his stomach hadn't stopped growling fiercely since he had woken up. 

The memory of his trip on the ship brought back to him the image of his little brothers. He stopped suddenly with his hands full of food, thinking about his little ones, where they would be, and if they were being treated as well as he was.

"Is something wrong, little one?" Asked another of his brothers with concern on his face. 

"The kids..." he whispered and stood up in his seat. He released the food into his hands and looked around in panic, sniffing the air to try to find the scents of his little ones. 

"Kids?"

"Five of our brothers; cubs. They captured us all and killed the rest," he answered clenching his teeth. One of his brothers handed him a small cloth to wipe his hands and face, and Nicolo rubbed it furiously over his skin.

The others looked at each other with confusion on their faces before turning their attention to Nicolo. One of them, sitting on a cushion on the floor near his legs, took a small portion of food from one of the plates and offered it to him encouraging him to keep eating. 

The brother frowned with concern for the newcomer looked very tired and agitated; he needed to feed himself or he would not be able to resist what awaited him that night. 

"I'm sure they're fine. No one will hurt them here, I promise.”

Nicolo nodded away without really believing Cris. He accepted the food and chewed it slowly, reminding himself that at any moment he could transform and attack anything and anyone that got in his way until he found his cubs and got them out. The only thing that made him feel a little nervous was the fact that there would be a full moon that night, which meant that when the sun went down, his body would no longer respond to him, and he would be consumed by fever and pain as happened every month. 

He finished his meal and although he longed to sleep, he had many questions for his siblings, and so he let them know.

"When were they brought here? How bad was the attack?" he asked them, fearing the worst. 

The group shared a glance again, and all seemed to agree silently for Cris to be the speaker.

"Not all of us were attacked, brother. To some of our villages, they came peacefully, explained to us all what we had been missing in our isolation, and offered us a home here," explained the brother in a soft voice, stroking the locks of Nicolo's hair that were beginning to dry, "Keane is the general of the king's troops. He is under the command of Andromache, the king's right-hand man. He is a violent and angry man, it is he who has led the violent attacks on our people and the king has punished him for it".

"Not enough, for he and his men massacred my entire village," he grunted, clenching his fists at the memory of the inert bodies of his brothers scattered around his village. 

"I assure you that if you tell the king about this he will solve it.

"Maybe he will finally get rid of him," interrupted the brother who had offered him food mumbling. Cris, who seemed to be the oldest in the group, gave the boy an annoying look and tapped him with his foot gently. 

"As I was saying. Andromache is a wise and kind woman. She taught us that not all barbarians were as bad as we had been led to believe for years."

Nicolo frowned, not knowing whether to believe his brothers or not. Besides the small gesture of the bath and the food, he had not experienced kindness from the barbarians. 

"Why are you alone here? Did just...you survive from your villages?" he asked, not forgetting the fact that the barbarians, led by whomever, had attacked his people repeatedly. 

"As I said before, not all of our villages suffered violent attacks. A large part of us talked to Andromache and we came to an agreement. The survivors of each village and those of us who voluntarily decided to come to this place have been relocated throughout the kingdom."

"You mean that... there are many of us alive?" he asked with such hope in his voice that most of his brothers smiled tenderly and nodded together. 

"Many. Most live in nearby villages with their families."

"And why, if they are gone, are you still here?" he asked with genuine curiosity. 

"Didn't Ella and Fio explain anything to you?" Cris frowned in confusion, turning away from Nicolo just a little to get a better look at his face. The youngest one denied strongly. Cris took a deep breath and pursed his lips, unsure how to continue. 

"You see, Nicolo," spoke another of his brothers, sitting on the floor and partially hidden behind the bodies of two of his other brothers, "we...  _ belong  _ to the king, somehow."

_ Belong? _ How can one person belong to another? 

"I suppose you are aware of what was said about the king and his desire to kidnap children from the Goddess Mother," Cris said this time. Nicolo nodded again, his full stomach turning to the memory of what brother Aran had told them. 

The king was supposed to be an imposing and ruthless man, and although the man he had seen in the library had seemed very intimidating to him, he did not look as abominable as he thought.

"Well, those rumors are not entirely true," Cris continued. "A long time ago, the grandfather of the present king, a truly cruel man who began with the first attacks on our villages, conveyed to his son his very wishes. The son of that king had a problem, however: he had no children to whom he could pass on what his father had taught him. So he prayed for long days and nights to the God of the Sun to grant him the opportunity to have a son. The king had married a woman from the eastern lands, but she could not have children, so the king decided to beg the God for help."

Cris stopped for a moment to let Nicolo assimilate everything. 

Until very recently he did not know that these women existed, and until a few hours ago he had not seen one in person. They were beautiful, powerful, very impressive beings. However, apart from brother Aran's vague explanations about how the barbarians mated with other people to have offspring that came from them and not from the Gods, he knew very little about this. It confused and terrified him in equal parts, for he did not really understand how simple mortals like them could give life just as the Gods did.

"The God granted his wish," the elder brother spoke again, "and soon after, from the Tree of Life, almost withered in the middle of the desert, Yusuf, our present king, was born. He is very different physically from the men of his tribe because most of those who walk on the earth were born from unions between men and women; only a few, very old, can already be called children of the God Father; but more importantly, his heart is not filled with the anger and greed of his ancestors."

"Why is it so different?"

"When the God granted his greatest wish to the king, he decided to dry up his tree too and return it to the depths of the earth. Yusuf is the last child of the God Father of All to be born, and the God decided that this would be his best creation. He is an alpha like no one has seen since the first births of children of the Sun, and this makes him incredibly powerful."

Nicolo frowned, "that's the name of this tribe?  _ Alpha _ ?"

His brothers stared at him before shaking off funny laughter that made him feel uncomfortable.

"Oh no, Nicolo. The alphas, they... it doesn't matter now," Cris quickly shook his head and dismissed the issue, but Nicolo was not convinced. Cris stroked his hair again and smiled broadly, "there is much you need to learn Nicolo, but the most important thing is that we are here to help the king have his offspring, but it is not a cruel act as you have surely heard," continued the elder trying to calm him down. 

Nicolo looked at them all in silence, stopping at their faces, the little marks on them that showed the passing of time and their ages, moving between Cris who looked like the eldest, to the one sitting far away from them all, who looked younger than the rest and who looked at him with a cold expression on his face; his essence felt bitter. 

Nicolo looked away uncomfortably and returned his attention to the others. There were fifteen of them, meaning that if he understood correctly what Cris had explained to him, the king had made at least fifteen attempts to mate and beget offspring. 

"The king has had...children, with all of you?" he asked in fear. 

"No, that's why there are so many of us here," the brother who was staring at him and making him feel nervous explained, rolling his eyes and clenching his fists in his lap, "As Cris said, the power of the king is enormous and his alpha very demanding. Many years ago a witch made a prophecy: ing Yusuf would only have children with a son of the Goddess Mother that would fulfill certain characteristics, and all of us here at some time fulfilled them."

_ Witch, prophecy? _ What was all that?

"And what happened?" 

"It didn't work, and the king kept looking for more sons of the Goddess of the Moon who would fulfill what the witch said. However, as you can tell, it didn't work; none of us managed to give the king the children he wanted," ended the brother with melancholy shining in his moss-colored eyes.

_ Why?  _ Why would he be sad not to carry the offspring of someone like that child of the God Father?

The group remained silent for a long time while Nicolo assimilated everything. 

It was so strange. All these new places, people, objects, knowledge... everything he had discovered in such a short period of time, and which somehow modified all the beliefs his tribe had about themselves and about the barbarians. 

Would it be right to continue calling them barbarians, when their own brothers who had lived among them for so long, did not consider them as such?

He pressed his eyes, feeling a puncture in the center of his forehead. His head hurt, there were so many things to assimilate, so many beliefs that were destroyed before his eyes. His whole life seemed to be a lie. And not understanding what he was doing there was making him feel even sicker...

Then realization came to him and he opened his eyes suddenly, jumping to his feet to get as far away from the group as he could.

"Th-That's why I'm here? The-they want me to-"

"Yes," his brother who seemed more upset than sad now, cut him off abruptly, "they brought you here to warm his bed uselessly once more."

"Eider!" Cris admonished him.

"What? It's the truth. He'll use it, he'll realize it's useless, and he'll throw it away like all of us."

"You're just jealous because he won't spend your heat with you tonight as you expected," attacked his brother still sat at Cris' feet with a mocking smile on his lips, "you're afraid you'll stop being the favorite because now Yusuf has an omega much prettier and younger than you."

The alluded one, Eider, looked at his brother with hatred and then turned the same gaze to Nicolo; essence strong and bitter, before getting up and stumbling out of the room. 

"That was out of place, Hal." Cris rebuked him. The young man rolled his blue-green eyes and smiled smugly. 

"I didn't say anything that wasn't true. He knew he wouldn't always be Yusuf's favorite, he'd better get used to it because something tells me that Nicolo will be staying with us for a long time." The older man smiled at him big time, and Nicolo felt his strength leave him, sending him to the ground. 

"Nicolo!" he heard them scream before he let himself be swept away by the darkness.

  
  
  


🌕🌕🌕🌕

  
  
  


The last lights of the day were disappearing on the horizon; the God who ruled the days being slowly swallowed up by the sea. 

He blinked slowly and let out a soft sigh when the fever rose in slow waves through his body, announcing the early arrival of what his brothers had described as his  _ heat. _

After his collapse from the panic the whole stressful situation had caused him, he had woken up in a long, soft seat close to the largest window in the room, with Hal and Cris sitting by his side waiting for him to wake up. They had given him a brief explanation of what would happen that night when the full moon was high in the sky, and Nicolo knew that they had tried to soften it up to not scare him, but it hadn't worked. 

He had been told that he was an Omega, and as such, every full moon, the symptoms he faced since he had gone through his sixteenth winter, was his body telling him that he was ready to mate with an alpha and be knotted and breeded. And that's what was going to happen that night between him and the king. 

After that, he had been left alone to rest; at sunset, Fio and Ella would come to prepare him for the king. 

He was terrified, to tell the truth. During this night he was weaker than ever, unable to defend himself as he would like to do, so he would be at the mercy of whatever the king, good or bad, wanted to do with him, and that frightened him more than the loss of his brothers and his home. 

He sighed once more and closed his eyes muttering a plea to his mother, praying for his little brothers and for himself, to survive all this. 

The door opened and the soft steps let him know that Ella and Fio were there to prepare him to finally face his destiny. 

"You're going to look more beautiful than you are when you're ready," the red-haired woman said with a gentle smile. 

Fio took his hand and led him back to the bathroom, followed by Ella who carried in her arms a pile of different colored fabrics and a small wooden box adorned with gold and silver. 

She left her load on a nearby piece of furniture, and while her companion led Nicolo in front of a long, oval glass where he could observe his slightly distorted reflection, she went to get the other things they would need from the multiple shelves that crowded the bathroom.

"Don't tell the others," Fio whispered to him, stroking his wavy hair, "but I think you're the prettiest omega the king has ever had."

Nicolo swallowed his saliva at the mention of his new title and looked down at his feet. The fever was starting to rise and he could feel the moisture slowly going down his inner channel to build up between his legs. 

Ella returned with some jars in her hands and left them besides what Nicolo could now see were clothes, approaching him again to indicate that he should undress. With his body naked in front of the women, he began to feel more uncomfortable than when he had been bathed, especially with the lethargic state he was in. His body gave off his essence more strongly and normally this would make his brothers uncomfortable, however, these women did not seem to be affected in the least and proceeded to massage his whole body, anointing him with an oil that gave off a soft aroma, and which made his skin shine and part of his nervousness lessened. 

They covered him completely and massaged his arms and back until he felt weak in her arms. When his skin had absorbed the oil, they proceeded to dress him, wrapping him in different brightly colored fabrics until they decided on one that they thought would bring out the color of his eyes. Ella took a soft, transparent cloth of the color of the forest in spring, and wrapped it around his waist once, holding it on his hip with a thick leather belt with slim gold threads hanging from it. The cloth fell to the ground in a long cascade, and when he took a step, his legs passed through it into the openings at the sides. They placed long and heavy necklaces on his neck and bracelets on his forearms and ankles that tinkled with every movement. They combed his long hair and pulled the longest strands from his face with a brooch with a huge blue stone in the center. Finally, they placed on his head a long veil, blue as the ocean, that did not make him feel covered at all because of the transparency of the fabric.

Both women moved away from him to examine his work with huge smiles and turned him over so he could face his reflection. 

"You are definitely the most beautiful omega that has ever walked this place," Ella said in what was supposed to be a compliment, but Nicolo didn't feel that way.

He looked strange and didn't like it. The scriptures of their Goddess Mother spoke of modesty, humility, and decency; the clothes of this tribe, so colorful, shining, and scarce, were not right. The ostentation of the jewels was even worse. 

While Ella placed a white flower with a yellow center in his hair, his discomfort worsened. His body began to sweat because of the fever, which became stronger and stronger, the liquid that gushed out of his interior slipped down his thighs and he only wished he could be in his village and shut himself up in his house like every full moon, to spend the long hours until the sun rose in the sky, sending prayers to the Goddess Mother so that she would alleviate his discomfort; or to lie down and sleep for long hours, whatever was possible.

"We must take you to the king's quarters now."

"N-no! Please, I don't... I don't feel well." He pleaded to the women, but they ignored him completely. 

The women took him by the hands and gently dragged him out of the bathroom and out of the room. They led him down a long road to which he paid no attention, too focused on the anxiety growing inside him with every step he took. The cold floor felt good under the warm skin of his bare feet and the current of fresh air that ran through the palace halls was a relief to his burning body. 

When they finally stopped and made him enter an unknown room, Nicolo felt that he was going to faint. The women arranged his clothes one last time before leaving him alone locked in this new room. 

His mind was cloudy and his body too weak. He took one deep breath trying to calm down and wished he hadn't. 

The powerful smell of the king that he had perceived in the library was ten times stronger, reaching into every corner of the room in which it was contained for the lack of an open window. It was a strange, penetrating, burning essence like the very desert; the earth, the saltwater, and the desert vegetation. It was like an oasis that made him feel at peace, but at the same time anxious, desirous of something and he did not know what. 

He breathed in once more and his legs yielded, sending him to the ground on his knees. 

He felt bad, he needed something, someone, the owner of the essence, and he did not know why.

  
  
  
  
  


🌕🌕🌕🌕

  
  
  


Yusuf sighed, burying his fingers in his hair and pulling on it in frustration. The decorations on the back of the chair stuck to his back when he let himself fall heavily backwards, but he didn't care. 

Andromache had returned to the library a few moments earlier to inform him that the little omega they had brought in that morning was already waiting for him in his quarters. Yusuf did not want to go, but Andromache had pressed him again, swearing in the name of God the Father that if he did not get this omega pregnant, she would never bring him another one again. 

He was extremely frustrated and fed up with the situation he had been living in for years when he became an adult in the eyes of the community and the witch had made her prophecy. His father had become obsessed with the prophecy and had sent his troops to bring all the Omegas to the palace to fulfill what the witch had said, and had forced him to mate with them to try to have his offspring. 

For years he had also been enthusiastic, diligently taking the Omegas presented to him and praying with all his strength to the Gods so that this time his wish would be fulfilled and he would be able to conceive a child with the omega under him. It hadn't worked, and over time he had become reluctant to keep trying while he saw the light inside his precious omegas fade when their wombs were still empty weeks after their first encounter. 

What hurts him most about the situation his omegas were in, was the fact that the witch's prediction was that if the omega did not get pregnant in his first heat with Yusuf, it would never happen. He had tried to offer them some comfort by holding them in his arms and giving them a space in his bed and his heart. He had given them the opportunity to stay in the palace, to be treated as what they were: the most important people in the king's life, and they had all accepted. 

Yusuf lived by and for them. He loved them with every fiber of his being and always made sure they had everything they could want and need. He clothed them, fed them, and educated them about the wonders of the world that they had been deprived of in their isolation. He spent as much time as he could with them, all together and sometimes privately with each one of them. He gave them pleasure as well, and although he had promised himself no favorites, there was a special place in his heart for some of them. 

For a time he had considered bonding with Eider. The little omega had come to him not long ago and from the first moment, he had shown himself to be different from the rest. He was cunning, intelligent, and, although it sounded bad, very good in bed; his only defect was his inability to give him a child and his somewhat exasperating personality.

He would be a good consort king, he knew it, but Andromache had stopped him from taking him as his only omega and marking him. She had asked him to wait for just a little longer and not to make such a big decision so soon. If he bonded with Eider he could not take any other omega, the bond of the bite was very strong and if he touched anyone else, the wolves inside of them would kill him and Eider with pain. Besides that, if he bonded with him it meant that he would give up the possibility of having children, and even though he had enough nephews, children of his trusted people whom he had raised himself, who could inherit the kingdom, the idea of having a child of his own, a cub born of his flesh and blood, still swarmed in his mind and warmed his heart. 

He looked out the window and saw the full moon rising majestically in the sky, illuminating the city under his feet with its pale and cold light and yet making them feel sheltered under the motherly warmth of his embrace. They could be sons of the God of the Sun, but the Goddess of the Moon was their mother, and every time she rose in the sky the warmth of her love covered them. 

"Give me a sign," he begged to the Goddess Mother. "Tell me this is right, tell me it will work or release me from this curse once and for all. Help me be happy, Mother of All."

The wind blew hard and the moon seemed to shine brighter as if trying to tell something. Yusuf closed his eyes tightly and sighed once more, asking for strength and patience. The door opened wide and his heart leaped in his chest as Eider entered the room like a whirlwind; his face wet with tears and a cloud of bitterness surrounding him. He stood up at once and caught the little omega in his arms as he threw himself on him, hitting his chest with his fists with force. 

"You can't do it!" he shouted between sobs, "you can't take him! You promised me something, Yusuf!" he snarled at him and kept hitting him. 

The wolf stirred hard inside him, feeling the essence of the omega that had come into heat. 

"Eider, you shouldn't be here..."

"NO! I forbid you to take him Yusuf!" the omega shook in his arms in rage until he let go. "Don't you see what this is? It's Andromache's plan to keep you from marking me! You can't give in, you can't take the damn omega!"

"Stop it, Eider, please." He muttered trying to reason with him, yet the angry and hurt omega ignored him. In a rage, he struck the table and threw everything on it to the floor. 

Yusuf clenched his fists and teeth, holding his breath so as not to be affected by the bitter smell of the omega any more than he already was. 

"I forbid you, Yusuf! If you take him I will kill him, I swear I will!"

"You are not thinking reasonably. Go to your quarters, please." He pleaded him as he took a couple of steps away from him; the wolf in him growled to come closer to him and calm the omega in heat.

"Reasonably?! How do you want me to think if you were going to go fuck another omega when you promised you'd be with me! You promised me you'd mark me today, Yusuf!" Eider dropped to his knees feeling weak, desperate, and with too much anger inside him; his body was shaking in uncontrollable sobbing and for the fever of his heat. 

Yusuf moved further away, fighting the urge to run to the omega and take him right there on the cold floor of the library. Eider watched him as he walked away and screamed in rage, pounding the floor with his fists. The tears in his eyes would not let him see and the need to have  _ his alpha _ make him his own would not let him think. His fists hit something, a thin object, and when he managed to distinguish what it was he immediately grabbed it in his fist. 

"You have to go, Eider."

"If you take the Omega, I'll kill myself!" he threatened, raising the small dagger and resting it on his neck, right where his alpha was supposed to mark him.

"Stop!" he grunted, feeling that he was losing his patience.

"I'm going to do it, Yusuf!

"Omega stop, damn it!" he yelled at him, raising his tone and using the alpha voice he rarely used with his omegas. Eider froze in place and looked up, writhing in fear when he saw his alpha's golden eyes fixed on him in fury instead of the desire he was used to. 

"You keep disobeying me and I will not tolerate that," he said in the same grave tone, "mark or no mark I am still your alpha and your king and you will do as I say. I'm going to take the omega because it's my damn duty. What happens after that is none of your business. And if you make an attempt on his life I will have no choice but to banish you."

He couldn't stay there, so he fled the place as fast as he could, leaving the catatonic omega almost passed out on the floor of the library. He placed the door lock on the outside to make sure no one would enter while Eider was there suffering from his heat, and almost ran to his quarters, away from the essence that smelled of need, betrayal, and terror, and his impulses to return, take him in his arms and apologize for being so aggressive with him and use his alpha voice. 

His mind cleared up a little as he walked away from the library, and the air carried away from him the omega essence of Eider. 

The corridors were clear. All omegas were confined in their rooms where they had everything they might need to pass their heat; the alphas were in the city or far enough from the palace not to commit a stupid mistake by taking one of the king's sacred omegas; the betas, well, should be in their own rooms resting. 

As he approached his quarters, however, a new scent struck him. The little newcomer omega, which smelled ten times sweeter than that morning, with a hint of anguish mixed in with the scent of flowers from the meadows, pines, and snow from the mountain tops. 

He stopped at the door of his rooms, breathing deeply a couple of times to try to calm down and concentrate on what he was about to do, locking the demanding wolf inside and leaving only the man who had to fulfill his duty of mating with the little one who was waiting for him inside the room, and who had come to destroy all his plans. 

With trembling hands, he opened the locks and half-opened the door just what was necessary to enter, and closed it again behind him with the inner locks. 

The essence of the omega hit him hard once inside, burning his body and making the wolf growl and howl desperately. _ Take him! _ he shouted,  _ he’s mine, take him! _ He took an unsteady step into the room, looking for the omega that was nowhere to be seen. He looked and moved around until he found the source of the delicious smell. 

The little omega was curled up in his bed, hunched over himself, shaking and muttering something that sounded like a prayer between sobs. The omega noticed his presence and immediately tensed up, jumping to his feet. 

Yusuf looked at him with big eyes a few meters away from him, delighting in the image of the beautiful omega on the clothes that were placed on the virgin omegas. His skin glowed under the candlelight scattered in the room and the drops of sweat running down him. The Jewels and fabrics of his clothes delineated his small and curved figure; but what attracted him most was his face, his eyes red as blood, charged with terror but with fury buried deep in them and his long fangs leaning out threateningly between his fleshy lips, red as the sweetest fruits. 

He took one step towards him and the omega  _ growled at him, _ growling away. His chest was churning and Yusuf was sure the heat was getting to him too much, it was always like that with virgin omegas. _ Take him now! _

No, he couldn't do it. The omega looked terrified, and although fierce and ready to attack him, he could feel the fear in him. Yusuf understood, he was a cub, barely coming of age if he wasn't mistaken, his mind must have been plagued by images of the stories that were told among his people about the cruelty of the alphas, of their king. He would not be easily touched, and although he liked a good challenge, something in the beautiful omega prevented him from behaving as he normally would. 

He came a little closer and the omega jumped up, bumping his back against the wall behind the bed. 

"Alright, calm down, I'm not going to hurt you," he said in his language, raising his hands so he could see that his intentions were good. 

"No! G-go away, you barbarian. I'm not afraid of you!" he shouted at him, showing him his fangs.

_ Barbarian? _ Oh God of the Sun! what had this cub been taught?

"I'm not going to hurt you, I swear, but you need help and I can give it to you," he said. He didn't know if Andromache or one of the servants who should have prepared him had explained what this was all about, and that only made everything more complicated. 

"I don't believe you! Yo-you the barbarians,  _ the alphas _ , are bad! You harm my brothers, you abuse them, you pollute them!"

"No, little one, I promise you, it's not like that! Please, let me help you," he moved toward him decisively, and the omega jumped further away from him. He frantically searched for something to hold on to, and took what was closest to him, a brass plate in the shape of a leaf with a thin tip on which rested a candle, which he threw to the ground; not ceasing to growl at him from deep in his throat, he lifted the object and threatened him with it. Tears streamed down his scarlet eyes, but he did not seem to notice this. 

Yusuf looked down at his body and could see the glimmer of his slick slip running down his legs and dripping onto the floor. He licked his hungry lips, but the moan of pain from the omega's lips brought him back to reality. 

The little one squirmed, bending his body; his free hand on his belly and his eyes tightly clenched. His lips moved quickly in prayer and the king's heart burned for him, wishing to relieve his anguish, to erase with his kisses the pain in his face, to calm with his knot the clamor of his body to be claimed. 

"You are in pain, cub, you need help. Please let me help you."

"No!" he shouted, opening his eyes wide as he heard him approach wielding his weapon. But Yusuf did not stop and ignored the shrinking and growling of the omega, trapping him between his body and the wall to prevent it from escaping.

The omega twisted violently and brushed his chest with the metal in his hands stabbing him hard. He managed to make a thin cut on his pectorals that healed immediately, leaving only a trace of small drops of blood. Yusuf struggled to get the weapon out of his hands, clenching his fist until he managed to get the omega to drop the object with a grunt of pain. The omega hissed threateningly and shrank over with a high-pitched moan when he felt pain again. 

The alpha raised his hands and slowly rested them on the cub's shoulders covered by the veil that adorned his head, and the omega shuddered, emitting a small groan that he could not recognize as either pleasure or fear.  _ Touch him, kiss him, knot him, now! _ The wolf commanded him. 

The little one shrank even more and sobbed loudly. "Ssh calm, everything will be alright, I am going to help you." He moved his hands slowly, lowering them through the trembling arms of the omega into his small, surprisingly cold hands despite the boiling heat that ran through his body. He raised his arms and brought the little one's hands to his lips, kissing his knuckles and the back of each one briefly. 

The omega looked at him with his huge eyes that were beginning to lose their red hue, and Yusuf smiled lovingly at him. He released one of his hands and brought it to his face, cradling his rosy cheek with tenderness. He leaned over to him and placed a small kiss on his forehead, inhaling his delicious essence. 

"You will be alright, my light, let me take care of you."

Yusuf surrounded him with his arms, twisting his hands around his waist and the omega melted against him, resting his face on his bare chest. "Please, it hurts, I don't know what it is, it has never hurt so much," he murmured in a broken voice and the king's heart broke with him. He kissed his forehead once more and slowly pushed him to the bed, forcing him to sit on it before he walked away to kneel before him.

"You are in your heat, as I hope someone has explained to you. It's different now, my essence has affected you and your body is asking for my knot," he tried to explain. 

He took one of the omega's bare feet and stroked it from the toes to the ankle, looking for the bracelets that adorned it until they were detached and left on the floor. He repeated the process with the other foot and when he was done, he slid his hands up and down the calves to the fleshy thighs of the omega. He bent forward and gave him small kisses from his knees until he stopped a few centimeters from his crotch, and with his eyes tightly closed he breathed in the sweet smell of the omega, which became more intense in that area. He slowly stood up, forcing the omega to lie down on the bed while he was sitting between his legs. 

The cub looked at him in fear with his eyes as green as jade and Yusuf could no longer contain himself. "What is your name?"

"Nicolo," whispered the little one and the king smiled as he approached to take his red lips in a kiss. 

Nicolo gasped in surprise, no one had ever kissed him on the lips before. Among his brothers, those actions were forbidden and although he knew he would be punished for this, he felt very good. 

The omega melted under him, opening his legs by inertia. His slick gushed from his throbbing entrance and Yusuf grunted over his lips feeling the sweet smell of the moisture from his new omega once again. The cub opened his lips and Yusuf took the opportunity to kiss him deeply, sliding his tongue into his warm mouth and moving it slowly and masterfully, teaching Nicolo how to kiss.

Nicolo groaned and his whole body shook. He squeezed his eyes tightly and felt a pleasant tingling, as he had never felt before, coming down through his belly into his crotch, where his painfully hard member jumped up in interest and his entrance dripped with longing. 

What was this? He had never felt this way before when the full moon came and his body was consumed with fever, it was so different and despite the pain that still attacked his body, he felt good. 

His brothers had explained to him shortly before he first suffered from full moon fever, that in order to alleviate his pain, he should say a series of prayers to the Goddess of the Moon. He had to remain all the time on his knees, with his arms glued to his sides and his palms facing the sky, accepting the blessings of the Goddess. He had been told that it would hurt between his legs and there would be a lot of moisture that would make him uncomfortable, but that under no circumstances should he touch himself, it was a forbidden area that only during the bath could he touch briefly. 

Nicolo had always diligently obeyed that command. 

Yusuf climbed up his legs slowly, briefly squeezing the thick thighs between his fingers before encircling the small waist with his hands and lifting the omega, sticking him to his body. Nicolo gasped in fright and his hands immediately surrounded his shoulders but he was reassured when Yusuf pushed his body to the center of the bed, settling it between the soft, fluffy pillows. The king turned away from him and Nicolo looked at him panting, leaning over to follow him and continue kissing him, nonetheless, the alpha smiled at him sideways and brought his hands to his head, pulling the veil from his hair. 

"We're going to take all this off so you'll feel comfortable," he informed him, and Nicolo let himself go. 

Yusuf quickly undressed him, throwing the jewels and fabrics to the ground until Nicolo was completely naked, curled up between his pillows and looking ethereal, like a God, with his long hair on his chest and framing his face; his body blushed, his legs half-opened letting his erect member and dripping entrance be seen; his eyes shining with longing. 

He shed his clothes and his cumbersome jewelry as well until he was completely naked standing by the bed. Nicolo looked at him briefly with curiosity. He knew the bodies of the barbarians, the alphas, and yet the king's was so different. He lowered his gaze and tilted his head, seeing his member among a bush of dark curls; it was big, very big; Nicolo was confused and somewhat intimidated by that fact.

The king smiled at him and crawled toward the bed, opening Nicolo's legs with his hands on his knees to be able to fit better among them. Their skins made contact and Nicolo let out a moan of pleasure that was caught by Yusuf's anxious mouth. They kissed for a long time and Yusuf was pleasantly surprised when he noticed Nicolo kissing him back with enthusiasm. He was a good apprentice. 

The large hands of the alpha caressed Nicolo's fleshy thighs once more and came down to his beautifully full and rounded butt with smooth, warm skin; it was perfect in every way. He parted his soft cheeks and touched with his fingertips the swollen flesh of his entrance. Nicolo cried out in surprise and arched himself against the alpha. Yusuf released the flesh from his butt and pulled his hands up his wide hips, perfect for carrying his children; rubbing his ribs until his fingers touched his swollen and sore nipples. 

"N-no, it hurts!" complained the omega grabbing Yusuf's hands to pull them away from his chafed buttons. Yusuf smiled at him and gave him one last kiss before going straight down to his chest. He squeezed Nicolo's hands between his own and pulled his arms away, pressing them on either side of his head against the pillow under him. 

He looked briefly into the watery eyes of the omega before descending with a hungry mouth into one of the small mounts and devouring it eagerly. 

"Wh-what are you doing? It-it's not right for you to put your mouth there," Nicolo admonished him and the alpha just smiled as he continued his work of sucking on the tiny nipples of the omega. 

His mind traveled to a future where the little omega breasts were swollen with milk, ready to nurse their cubs, dripping with milk while his omega begged him to feed from him to help him. He moaned excitedly at the thought and his dick jumped up in interest. 

He stayed a long time torturing the nipples of the omega until he was a soft mass underneath him. He had let go of his hands at some point to caress his thighs which were squeezed tightly at his sides, and Nicolo had bravely entangled his fingers in his hair, pulling it when a stream of pleasure ran through him. Yusuf did not stop until the omega had his first orgasm, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen:

Nicolo, his little omega, with his eyes and mouth wide open, moaning his name -which someone must have told him-, in a desperate voice. Tears ran down his cheeks, sweat moistened his body and his little member dripped as well as his entrance, spreading the sweet liquid on the blankets. It was a wonderful sight and the Alpha never wanted to miss it now that he had seen it.

Nicolo faded into semi-consciousness for a few minutes, overwhelmed by all the sensations that ran through him. He had never felt anything like this, he didn't know that during the full moon fever he could experience that. His prayers regularly worked to lessen the pain in his body and bring him back to consciousness. He had never touched his body the way the king,  _ Yusuf, _ was doing, and even though he knew it was forbidden, he felt very good. 

Yusuf let him rest for a moment and moved away from his flabby body to fetch some water from the bowl his servants had left there, and filled a cup which he brought to Nicolo, placing the rim on his lips for him to drink. The omega obeyed and drank all the water, regaining some of his sense before a new wave of heat attacked him and he hunched over himself when the punctures returned to his belly and the vein in his neck with more force than before. 

The alpha took pity on him and after drinking some water, he went back to bed. He lay down beside him watching him with rapt eyes, caressing his hair and face. It was a disaster, the most beautiful disaster his eyes had ever seen. Nicolo took his hand to Yusuf's hand that caressed his face and the alpha gave him a little kiss on the palm before descending to kiss his lips. 

He rolled over the body of the omega who received him with his legs open and enjoyed the shelter it gave him, the feeling of being at home. A new twinge of pain ran through the cub and Yusuf cradled him in his arms, burying his face in the pale neck and calmly kissing the area where he should leave his mark.

"It hurts!" Nicolo whispered once more, with a new one coming down from his eyes, tears streaming down. "Help me, please!" he begged, and Yusuf knew he could never deny him anything again. 

He nodded, understanding perfectly, and stepped out from between his legs to lie down beside him so he could work better. He lowered one of his hands that cradled the wet face of the omega, stroking his chest slowly until he reached his little swollen member. He surrounded it with his fist and caressed it with soft movements, bringing out moans and complaints of pain from the cub, who hid his head in his shoulder and surrounded his neck with his arms. The alpha stroked him for a moment more before finally bringing his fingers to the soft, swollen flesh of his entrance that was dripping his slick. 

"Yusuf!" Nicolo groaned breathlessly against his neck, closing his legs and trapping the alpha's hand between them. "Y-you can't touch there, it's forbidden. It's bad!" the cub explained in a muffled voice. 

"It's okay, my light, take a deep breath. I'll ease your pain, please let me do it," he whispered, shaking his head so he could see the omega's unsteady eyes. Nicolo barely nodded and slowly spread his legs. 

Yusuf kissed his forehead and moved his hand a little bit more down until his fingers could dip between the cheeks of the beautiful omega butt. It was wet, very wet.  _ Knot him, now! _ His slick dripped onto Yusuf's hand as he explored, gently touching the bruised flesh. He wanted with all his strength to bend down and taste the intoxicatingly scented liquid that surely tasted like the sweetest honey, yet he feared that Nicolo would suffer more pain if he did not knot him soon. 

Determined not to keep him waiting any longer, he dipped one of his fingers slowly into the small entrance, groaning against the hair of the omega as the warm interior  _ sucked _ his finger. He moved his finger peacefully, slowly dilating him before adding a second finger to open him better. The omega twisted and complained once more and the king's heart shrank in his chest when he saw his belly shrink and his entrance tighten with a deadly grip around his fingers. 

He stopped and pulled his fingers out from inside Nicolo with a careful movement so as not to hurt him. He settled down better on him and let him continue to hold him by his shoulders while he settled between his legs. He used the slick of the omega to lubricate his dick which had been ignored for the purpose of pleasing the omega, and took a deep breath of his essence before lining up, brushing his small entrance with the tip of his dick. 

"Nicolo, look at me," he whispered and Nicolo looked up shyly, "it's going to hurt a little at first, but I promise you'll feel better later."

The omega nodded and hid from him again, tightening his grip on the king's shoulders and neck even more. Yusuf moved carefully, pushing the head of his dick into the omega, stopping when Nicolo yelled against the skin of his shoulder. When he felt him calm, he continued on his way until most of his dick was inside the embracing heat and suffocating tightness of his omega. 

"Oh Nicolo!" he groaned, delighting in the way the virgin entrance of the omega was pressed around his dick. It was paradise like no other, "I'm going to move, my light, it's okay..." Nicolo did not respond, too dizzy with sensations, but Yusuf could wait no longer. 

With all the care and patience he was capable of, he moved inward until he buried himself deep within the omega. Nicolo screamed loudly, but he could not stop. He caught his lips in a kiss and continued to bury himself in him with more strength and speed until he touched the sweet spot that he knew would give the omega so much pleasure. 

Nicolo became liquid in his arms. He closed his eyes and let his arms fall to his sides, moaning and panting his name with his lips half-open. He surrounded the alpha's waist with his perfect legs and Yusuf buried his nose in his neck, charging him with unbridled passion, taking full possession of the body and soul of his little omega. 

They moved together in a slow dance that seemed to last for centuries, until the full moon came down on the horizon when the knot of the alpha swelled more and more, locking him into the narrow passage of the omega. 

"Wh-what's that?!" asked the worried omega, forgetting about the pleasure for a moment as he felt the alpha's already too big dick grow even bigger, putting pressure on him and making him feel like he was being torn in half from the inside. 

"It's the knot, little Nicolo, you'll feel good soon." Yusuf kissed him again to quiet his worries, and Nicolo let himself go, moving his hips to the rhythm the alpha was setting.

A stream of pleasure went down through his body when the alpha touched that point inside him again that made him go crazy. His insides tightened even more, and his member dripped down onto his stomach as his slick was pouring out of his entrance. Yusuf groaned in delight against his neck when he felt the omega come into his arms again. His knot swelled up completely and he came hard, filling the omega abundantly. He whispered a prayer to the God Father, begging him to finally allow him to breed this omega that he doubted he could let go. 

_ Mark him, mark him now! Mine, mine! _

_ "My omega!" _ he snarled away from Nicolo's neck to kiss him hard, avoiding marking him as the wolf wanted. He couldn't do it, not until he knew if he had impregnated the omega. 

" _ Alpha! _ " shrieked the omega suddenly over his lips, and he came once more just by feeling his alpha's cum discharging into him, making him feel so full, so confused. 

_ I can't let him go,  _ Yusuf said to himself. The wolf didn't want to let go either.

"You are mine now, little one, I cannot let you go," he whispered to him, kissing his cheeks. 

Nicolo, on the verge of unconsciousness, nodded once, closing his eyes and falling limp on the bed. 

Yusuf stood there for a long time, staring at him, analyzing every little part of his beautiful, delicate face; holding tightly to his warm body that welcomed him as if it was made just for him. He remained buried deep inside the sleeping omega until the first lights of the day filtered through the curtains that covered the windows, and his knot began to deflate. 

As he came out of the omega and placed him on his chest to rest, he thought sadly of Eider, and how he had just destroyed all their plans. He would have to protect Nicolo more than his other omegas this time, to keep him away from Eider, because he did not think he would be able to let him go so easily, not now that he had discovered paradise in his arms. 

A small flower on the edge of the bed caught his attention. He stretched out his arm to reach it and squeezed the stem between his fingers. He looked down at Nicolo's serene face and caressed his skin with the petals of the flower before entangling it in his hair. He kissed the little omega's forehead and closed his eyes, letting himself be dragged into the world of dreams, dreaming of his beautiful Nicolo, his omega, pregnant and carrying his mark with pride. 

The wolf inside him howled satisfied.

  
  
  


_ It will continue... _

**Author's Note:**

> So yes, that's it. Good, bad, terrible? Let me know what you think in the comments.
> 
> This has a second part that will be as long and weird as this first one, so if you don't hate it yet, you will soon. 
> 
> See you later. Take care xx


End file.
